Harry's bad mood vanished the next day when he saw the headlines in the Magical Daily.
LILY POTTER TO RECEIVE ORDER OF MERLIN, FIRST CLASS POSTHUMOUSLY FOR DEFEATING THE DARK LORD TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE A.K.A LORD VOLDEMORT
AWARD TO BE ACCEPTED BY HER SON LORD HADRIAN JAMES POTTER
Sirius had told him that he was rallying support for this, and it looked like it had worked. Harry smirked, wondering how the blood purists would react to this. Lily Potter was clearly the bane of their existence for getting rid of their precious master and was now being presented the Order of Merlin, First Class, twelve years after her death.
Harry dressed for the day, morphed into a man who looked to be in his twenties and went over to the fireplace in the Entrance Hall and said "Diagon Alley". After a flash of green flames, he was transported to the alley. He seamlessly walked to Gringotts, and was ushered into Lord Rangok's office. Inside, he saw the old goblin, along with a woman sitting who appeared to be in her thirties. He morphed back to his original appearance and stepped inside.
"Greetings, Lord Rangok" said Harry, giving the old Goblin a warrior style salute.
The old goblin grinned and said "Greetings to you as well, Lord Potter. Allow me to introduce to you Mrs Serena Miller, the proprietor of Miller's Magical Mirrors"
Harry went over to her, took her hand and kissed her knuckles. "It's my pleasure to meet you, Mrs Miller" he said, in a dignified voice.
The woman smiled and said "The pleasure is mine, Lord Potter. I am happy to finally meet you."
"To business" she said, as she removed her bag. "I would like to thank you for your investment, Lord Potter. I never thought my communication mirrors would be that profitable, as floos have been in existence for much longer and there are owls for delivering messages without the need of knowing the address, but your advice for new products gave me a boost. Let me demonstrate" she said while handing three mirrors, one each for herself, Harry and Rangok.
"An initialisation process has to be done for each mirror so that it can be personalised for each person. Once done, I can call out your name in case I need to contact you, and it would immediately reach you through an array of charms, runes and specially designed spells which I invented myself. Watch" she said and demonstrated by saying "Hadrian Potter"
Immediately, Harry felt his mirror heat up a bit and he heard the words again, coming from his mirror. He activated it by just waving his hand in front of the mirror. He then saw Mrs Miller's face in the mirror.
"Now for the improvements" she said. "Lord Rangok". Rangok soon got the message on his mirror, and she waved her hand over the mirror. All three of them found themselves able to see the other two in the mirror.
"Ingenious. You're clearly exceptional" said Harry, his eyebrows raised. "This is much better than the version of your mirrors I currently have."
"Indeed" said Rangok, examining the mirror.
Mrs Miller went pick from the praise she received, but she said, "I have more."
She removed a large mirror from the bag and placed it on the floor. She tapped it and it levitated itself to a few feet above the ground. She then took out a tiny crystal from a velvet box and suspended it in mid-air. She tapped the large mirror, and later the crystal. There was a glow between the two, and suddenly, the office was visible in the mirror. Mrs Miller conjured a ball, tapped it with her wand and then the crystal. The ball was now visible in the mirror. She levitated the wand all over the office, and the moving ball could be seen clearly in the mirror as the crystal followed it around everywhere.
"You were actually able to make my idea work?" asked Harry surprised.
"Indeed" replied Mrs Miller with a smile. "I must say I never would have thought of this myself. Quidditch matches would be a lot better with these around"
"You've charmed the crystals like how you would charm a golden snitch; similar, but at the same time it is different" observed Harry.
"Precisely" she remarked.
"You know" said Harry, thinking. "We have wards that act like sensors. But none of them provide a visual. If these can be integrated into warding systems, it could revolutionise the way intruders can be detected".
Rangok's eyes went wide. "I think that's a brilliant idea" he said. "Do these mirrors and crystals have a recording feature?"
Mrs Miller smiled and nodded. "They do. When you told me it was primarily for Quidditch matches, I wanted people to watch them from home as well as watch it later at their leisure. So the mirrors have a recording feature. It can be used to pause and go back to the time index required" she explained.
"Mrs Miller" said Rangok sharply. "Are you interested in a joint venture with Gringotts International Bank?"
Harry laughed. "Brilliant" he whispered. "Good idea, Lord Rangok" he said, addressing the aged Goblin.
Rangok gave Harry and sharp grin, when Mrs Miller looked dumbfounded and asked, "May I ask for what?"
"To create a new system of wards" explained Rangok. "As you know, Goblins not only undertake banking, but also warding. We have entire teams of warders and curse breakers all over the world. This new visual type of wards have not been developed anywhere in the world; all our advanced wards are very effective, but they're sensors and audio monitors. Most thieves aren't stupid enough to talk during their break in. This type of visual wards would have prevented the break-in that happened here two years go, or at least let us know of their identity."
Mrs Miller was gaping at Rangok. But she recovered and said, "Thank you for your opportunity, Lord Rangok. I'll be sure to think about it and consider it."
Harry smiled. This was so accelerating! This was only the beginning of removing the stagnation that permeated Magical Britain and he getting more gold was an added bonus.
"There is more" revealed the woman, much to the shock of Harry and Rangok.
She took her small mirror, showed it to them. There was a message there asking if it wanted to pair. She went over the large mirror and did the same. Suddenly, whatever was appearing on her small mirror appeared in the large mirror as well.
"I can control the actions of the large mirror using my handheld ones" she explained. "Then there is this". She pressed a few runes on the mirror which appeared on it and said "To Lord Hadrian Potter, we have a meeting scheduled on the first of July, 1993 at Gringotts. By Mrs Serena Miller. Send"
A few seconds later, Harry's mirror heated up again, and saw the message appearing. He could view the audio version, the video version or just the text. It was sheer brilliance. She then removed another small mirror, and tapped it. Suddenly, the large mirror activated, and in it, they could see Mrs Miller reading out the day's news. Harry only smiled when he realised that it was the day when the paper had announced him killing the basilisk.
He grinned when he realised where she had gotten the idea. "You've incorporated it from the muggle television, haven't you?" he asked, amused.
While Harry did not like using muggle technology, he had to grudgingly appreciate some of their inventions, the television for example. While there was no shortage of entertainment in the magical world, people had to go to a certain place for it, like an opera house or a theatre. But magical technology such as this mirror could boost the industry as well. The magical world, unlike what some muggleborns claimed, was not stuck in the dark ages. In fact, they were on a completely different level as compared to the muggles. While the muggles were still looking for different stars and planets in the galaxy, witches and wizards had an entire model of the galaxy being sold in a shop. Medicine in the magical world was incredibly advanced as compared to muggle medical technology. Telephones were not necessary as the floo system was more than capable of communication, but there were limitations with it, which could be solved by these mirrors. Transport of goods and people nationally and internationally also was not a problem as there were portkeys and floos for that as well, which would do the job in seconds. He scoffed when some people claimed that muggles were better than magical races. He knew what went on in the muggle world of course, and there was no way muggles were better than them.
Mrs Miller's cheeks went pink. "Well, sort of. As you can see, I don't need to use wires or electricity to power it. The mirrors are all inter-connected. If they need to watch the news, they have to open the required channel, which until then isn't connected. What do you think?" she asked.
"I think this is the best investment I've ever made" breathed Harry, looking at the mirror. "Mrs Miller, you've just started an industry that would give rise to plenty of other industries in the process. You have no idea how big this could become" he said. "Have you patented it?"
"Yes, Lord Potter" answered Rangok. "It has been done for all her inventions".
"What about international branches?" he asked, grinning at the slack-jawed expression on the inventor's face.
Rangok looked at his notes. "I believe we can start branches in Paris, Berlin and New York City, while we are currently looking at places in China, India and Japan as well" he said.
Mrs Miller sat down in shock. "You want to move international?" she whispered, tears streaming down her face.
Serena was a muggleborn. When she had received her Hogwarts letter, her parents and siblings hadn't been happy at all. They had called her a freak and had kicked her out of the house. She had been devastated, but went to Hogwarts anyway. There she had been sorted into Hufflepuff and made lots of friends. Her best friend had been a half blood boy, Chris Miller. When she was dreading to go back home after school ended, he helped her. When Mrs Miller, Chris's mother, a muggleborn herself took her to Serena's home, her parents had yelled at them and told them to never come back. Her parents had later moved away, so as to cut off all communication with their estranged daughter. Serena had been devastated. Chris's parents took her in and looked after her. She came to regard them as her own parents.
She and Chris got married after leaving Hogwarts. But tragedy struck as the Death Eaters killed her husband and in-laws when she was away one night. She had been inconsolable. She was alone, as her family was killed. She couldn't return to the muggle world as she didn't belong there, but the magical world was not safe either. She disappeared for a few months, hoping everything would settle down. Thankfully, it did. Harry Potter had saved them all.
She had been working in the Ministry in the Obliviation squad as they needed them at the point. But she didn't want to work there forever. Her dream was to be an enchantress. She was highly gifted in the field, and so wanted to make her dream a reality. She had created mirrors that would be able to communicate with each other, but she didn't know if they were going to be a success because such technology was already present due to the Floo network. But she finally decided to try. So three years ago, she had quit her job at the Ministry, and had opened her own business. The business wasn't very profitable, but luckily it didn't go into losses either.
But more than a year ago, she had been contacted by the Director of Gringotts Bank, London. Lord Rangok informed her that Lord Hadrian Potter, the Boy Who Lived, wanted to invest a hundred thousand Galleons, perhaps more if she could enhance the mirrors and create other useful gadgets with them.
Since she didn't have a family, she was quite free to do anything with her time. So she had spent every spare moment on those devices. And now, not only was Lord Potter happy and impressed, Lord Rangok was too, and they were planning on moving international. Her biggest dream was about to be fulfilled.
Serena Miller regained control of her emotions and asked, "Are you sure, Lord Potter? What if these items don't sell?"
"Oh they will be a success" said a grinning Harry. "I'm sure the Boy Who Lived endorsing them will make people flock to your store."
Mrs Miller just nodded. She couldn't believe that Harry was willing to do that! "We can start with the London branch first. Once they have been received well by the public we can open the shops in Paris, Berlin and New York City" she said.
Both of them thanked Lord Rangok for his time and left the building. Serena wanted to show Harry her shop. They went in, and Harry called for his elves. Immediately, ten elves popped in.
"What can we do for Master Hadrian?" they chorused.
Harry smiled, amused. "Alright guys. I want this entire shop renovated. Enlarge it, decorate it, and create spaces to store and sell in a way that would be best for a business. Use your best judgement for the design. I don't want to go to a wizard architect as I'm sure you'll do a marvellous job" he said.
The elves nodded, delighted. Harry smiled at Serena and said "Mrs Miller, trust me. By the time those elves are done, you'll have the best shop in all of Diagon Alley."
Serena choked up and said "Thank you, Lord Potter, for everything. I have nothing in my life. My family is dead. I don't have children. My business was the only thing that I had, and you're taking it to great heights. Thank you".
Harry smiled, bent down in front of the crying woman, took her hands in his and said, "Mrs Miller, I know what it is like to not have a family. But just because you don't have biological children don't mean you can't have adopted children. Think back to your childhood; there are so many muggleborns in muggle orphanages, being treated horribly. Why don't you adopt a magical child from there? It's not difficult to check if the children are muggle or magical. You can save someone's life as well as fill the void in your life".
Serena looked at the boy kneeling in front of him. She idly caressed his hair and said "You're such a good boy. Your parents would be proud of you. I think I'll take your advice."
Harry smiled. He had used Legilimency on her and had found out that she had suffered a lot in her life. He knew that she didn't care much about money, only her dream of being an enchantress. Her story pulled his heartstrings, and suddenly, this business venture became a lot more personal. Here was a woman who had suffered from both muggles as well as Death Eaters, because of which she was alone. He would do his best to take care of her and bring some joy in her life.
He got up and gave her a tender hug. "You can call me Harry" he said to her.
"Call me Serena" she said, smiling and returning the hug.
HP*LIGHTNING LORD*HP
The Order of Merlin was the highest civilian award given to any witch or wizard who was a citizen of the British Isles. There were of three forms- First Class, Second Class and Third Class. To award one to a person, it needed Wizengamot approval. It was then presented to the awardee by the Minister of Magic.
It was a warm evening on the second of July, 1993. Reporters were gathered in the Atrium of the Ministry along with Wizengamot members, some Ministry employees, important witches and wizards, and of course, a portion of the public. Today, Lily Potter was going to be awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class posthumously. There were some protests from the pureblood fanatics because of Lily Potter's blood status, but it was never voiced out loud. After all, it was dangerous to say anything in public against the woman who defeated Voldemort, and thus was loved by the public along with her war hero husband and her son who was the Boy Who Lived.
Harry was wearing his best robes of black and red for the occasion. He was present in the Atrium, with Daphne next to him, socialising with many people who were present there. Dinner was arranged, and once it was done, Minister Fudge stepped up to the stage. Fudge had taken a beating for the Chamber of Secrets fiasco, so he was doing his best to get that credibility back at this event. When he cleared his throat, the noise died down, as the crowd waited for him to speak.
"Twelve years ago" he began. "We were in a state of war. There was confusion everywhere. You Know Who and his band of mercenaries were wreaking havoc all over the country, and there was mass killing and terror. When he came to the house of the Potters on 31st October, 1981, he was defeated. Lord James and Lady Lily Potter were killed, but their infant son, Hadrian Potter survived. He is the only one to have ever survived the killing curse; the Boy Who Lived" said Fudge.
"Recently, it has come to the attention of the Ministry, that the late Lady Lily Potter devised a method to save her infant son's life; this lead to her defeating You Know Who. Her son, Lord Hadrian Potter has now recently saved the students of Hogwarts by killing a basilisk that was terrorising the school. Clearly, the Potter family has done the country and its people a great service. Therefore, I, Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic of Magical Britain and Ireland, by the power bestowed upon me by the Wizengamot, posthumously award the late Lady Lily Potter with the Order of Merlin, First Class" he announced.
There was thunderous applause as Harry stepped onto the stage. He smiled and shook hands with the Minister as the cameras flashed. A witch came forward carrying a medallion. It was gold, with a silver band. Harry bowed as the Minister placed the band and medallion around his neck. His smile widened as a large shield, with two wands crossed at the centre, proudly displayed his mother's name below the golden letters signifying the Order of Merlin, First Class.
Harry cleared his throat, signifying that he was about to make a speech. The stage was charmed so that his voice was magically enhanced and could be heard all over the Atrium. He internally smiled as he saw Serena Miller in the crowd, with a small crystal suspended in mid-air next to her. She winked at Harry signifying that she was ready.
"I would like to start by thanking the Minster of Magic Cornelius Fudge, the Chief Witch Lady Acton and the august body of the Wizengamot for presenting my mother with his prestigious award" began Harry. The crowd listened in rapt attention as Harry had never before given a public interview or speech.
"As an orphan, I don't know much about my parents. What I do know, I only gathered after talking to my godfather and after reading their journals; but it wasn't the same. I wish I had known them, but that can be said to many of those who lost their families in the war due to Tom Riddle" said Harry. He purposely called the man Riddle and not Voldemort.
"The war took many lives of so many talented witches and wizards. As the Minister said, there was rash muggle killing, it was difficult to maintain the International Statute of Secrecy while at the same time capture the Death Eaters. My mother knew that my life was in danger. Like any other concerned mother, she took action, even though she knew that she had to die in order for me to live. She gave up her life so that her son could live; so that we could all live."
Harry looked at them all and said "Her actions ended the war. But why is that stagnation still permeates the country? Tom Riddle killed so many talented witches and wizards. He didn't care about our world, he only cared about himself. It has been twelve years, so why haven't we risen yet? We still shudder when we hear a made up name made by a delusional teenager that had daddy issues. We are magical beings! We are better than that! We have survived so much and have risen to form the best society there could be! Why should we let the fear of that man torment us even now? I say enough! We need to wake up. Magical communities around the world are thriving and we used to contribute to the international society. What happened to us? We need to get back up!"
"Remember all those who died in the war. Remember their sacrifice so that you can help create a better magical society today. Let their deaths not be in vain by us not improving our beloved magical world. Remember them, and let us rise again. Remember those times, so that someone else like Tom Riddle can never come back to kill us all again. Let us get back up!" he said, finishing his speech with silence.
Suddenly, there was thunderous applause. Harry bowed to them and stepped down from the stage. He mentally smiled. He had planted the seeds. Now all he had to do was let it grow.
HP*LIGHTNING LORD*HP
Diagon Alley was buzzing with activity. One shop in particular, caught everyone's attention. The place looked full. It was Miller's Magical Mirrors. Many people stepped inside to see what it was about and were stunned by their discovery.
Shelves of different types of mirrors could be seen. They were not for vanity, no. They had different purposes. There were communication mirrors which could be used to send messages or used to call others. There were other large mirrors which could be used to watch the news or Quidditch matches. It seems the Magical Daily Press had teamed up with Miller and the news could now be seen on the mirrors. Advertisements of the Quidditch teams Montrose Magpies and Puddlemere United could be seen on the mirrors as well. It was said that the mirrors were going to be used in the next matches and they were going to be recorded and could be watched while staying at home. There were many other features which people were interested in. Hadrian Potter receiving the Order of Merlin on behest of his mother and his speech later was also shown on several of the large mirrors. Many of the customers were buying the products excitedly.
Harry exited the shop with a small smirk on his disguised face.
HP*LIGHTNING LORD*HP
It was a few days later that there was a breaking news on the large mirror which had been installed in Harry's master bedroom.
The reporter said "There has been a shocking report from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Death Eater and mass murderer Peter Pettigrew has escaped from Azkaban. It is unknown how he escaped, but the general consensus is that he might have used his animagus form, which is a rat to escape. But considering that the Ministry was aware of the fact, we are not sure how Pettigrew could have escaped the fortress that was considered escape proof"
"Peter Pettigrew was convicted and sentenced to life in Azkaban two years ago for betraying the Potter family to the Dark Wizard Tom Marvolo Riddle, which lead to the murder of James and Lily Potter and for the attempted murder of the Boy Who Lived, Lord Hadrian Potter. Lord Sirius Black was then sent to Azkaban on false charges, but was released two years ago after finally receiving a trial"
"There has been no further report from the Ministry of Magic concerning the escape, but it is advised by the population to be vigilant and to report any suspicious activity. If you spot Pettigrew, call the Auror office immediately. This is Steve Green, reporting for the Magical Daily News"
Harry couldn't believe it. Pettigrew had escaped? What was the rat planning on doing? He stood up and started pacing. The only options that he thought were that the rat was either coming to kill him or find Voldemort. Option two wasn't appealing at all. So far, he had destroyed only two Horcruxes while three more remained. He had to get them too. But he needed Sirius's help for that, and there was the problem.
Harry didn't know if he could confide in Sirius and Amelia with something so delicate. He needed Sirius to gain access to Bellatrix's vault. He had also researched who R. A.B could be and had come to only one suspect – Sirius's brother, Regulus Arcturus Black. He didn't know how Regulus had known about the Horcrux, but he was never going to find out unless he spoke to Sirius. After a few more minutes, he decided that he would wait for a while. If he could accomplish it without involving Sirius and Amelia he was all for it. If he needed them, he would tell them during the Yule holidays.
The next morning, the Magical Daily came as usual.
PETER PETTIGREW ESCAPES AZKABAN
MINISTER FUDGE DEPLOYS DEMENTORS ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY AND AT HOGWARTS
PETTIGREW IS SUSPECTED TO TARGET THE BOY WHO LIVED
Dementors? Harry's eyes went wide at reading that. He hated those things with a passion, as he truly believed they were incredibly dangerous. He did not want to be defenceless if he ever faced one. It looked like he had to master the Patronus Charm.